Mass Effect: A New Mass
by ChickenDragon
Summary: Sarah Shepard was supposed to fight alone. The Reapers were never meant to be stopped. But not everything is set in stone and outside forces have a way of disturbing the pond. Pre-Eden Prime. OC/femshep M for the potential future of the fic may change to T. Hopefully fleshed out charcters. Need BETA. Trying for a modicum of realism. Part 1 of several.
1. Chapter 1

Ok guys, I went through and rewrote the first chapter. I hope you guys like it a little bit more. The first round always felt stilted to me and was in desperate need of a rewrite. I hope to ever the next couple of weeks get another round of rewrites done and continue with the story. As always Constructive criticism is welcome, and I appreciate it. I am still in need of a BETA if you want to be one.

Chapter 1: The Meeting

 **Arcturus Station  
January 11, 2183  
SPECTRE candidate meeting**

The meeting had taken several hours already and Donnel Udina was getting a headache. The decision to choose humanities first SPECTRE was an important one, the next step to securing the future of the human race. It meant that humanity was almost ready for a council seat, a seat that Donnel Udina had spent his adult life attempting to win for humanity. It was an important choice, everyone knew that, which was why the decision might as well have been left to monkeys. Everyone in the room knew who the humans first SPECTRE should be. _'Well, almost everyone.'_ He thought as he cast a disproving glance at certain aids around the room. Apart from the aids though, everyone knew who needed to be the next SPECTRE. It didn't mean they had to like it. Udina didn't like it. But Udina wasn't going to look over their options for the 20th time that day because he didn't like his options. He did that earlier.

The aids weren't the cause of Udina's headache, though they weren't helping either. They were just the fuel to a raging trashcan fire. The problem was one of politics, the ideal candidate for SPECTRE would be someone who was competent, publicly appealing, and wouldn't have emotional baggage to bring with them. Unfortunately, none of the candidates had those qualifications, and only one came close. Which of course was why her husband had shown up, to ensure that everyone knew they had to pick her. _'And most likely to see how many stress related medical problems he can give me in the course of a day.'_ Udina thought dryly.

"Who would you suggest Admiral? We all know who the only acceptable candidate is, and so does He." Udina's tired voice rang out interrupting Admiral Zhou. Udina's finger pointing at the man in the corner, next to Admiral Hackett. The man's presence was disgusting to Udina. He was in many ways the cause of Udina's headache, the reason the obvious candidate wasn't also the politically correct one, the reason that Sarah Shepard hadn't already gotten the job. The reason that Udina was wondering why all the men he normally respected were turning into slightly civilized monkeys politely screaming about the end of the world.

The Butcher of Torfan stood and addressed the assembled men and women. His voice stank of amusement. His smile was a little bloodthirsty, playing to his reputation. The tall man stood large, looming over the table, daring anyone to challenge him. A metaphorical squall line over prairie. "Indeed Udina? And who is the 'only acceptable candidate' that you speak of?"

Udina sighed out loud. "Your wife." He said reluctantly and with some distaste.

The amused voice of Luke Shepard grew serious and the bloodthirsty grin morphed to a more stone-faced expression as Luke straightened his posture. "Exactly. Sarah is the only option you have and you know it. I'm just here to make sure you know it, and that nobody does anything stupid, like suggest Delacour as candidate." Luke spat the name Delacour out like it was diseased, not that Udina disagreed. Udina didn't like Luke, but at least he was useful, occasionally.

An aid stood up and Udina groaned internally. This was the problem with the Butcher. If he hadn't shown up this meeting would have been over an hour ago and Sarah Shepard would have been the candidate already. But the man had to say his piece, and inevitably some idiot would have to say his, and so the cycle continued.

The aid, who Udina was sure would soon become the Ex-aid with superiority he neither had nor should ever have said. "And what if we were to choose Delacour? What would you do about it? He has the same training you and Shepard do. He has the same experience you and Shepard do. He is just as valid a candidate as Shepard is." The aid glared at the Butcher who was entirely unaffected by the anger in the gaze.

The Butcher simply raised an eyebrow and looked at Udina. Udina growled. He knew the game Luke was playing, now he was actually openly agreeing with the Butcher. Udina hated every second of it. "Delacour, is barely fit to tie his own shoelaces, much less serve as a SPECTRE. Let alone humanities' first." Udina sat back down and volunteered no more information. Normally he would be a little more diplomatic, but frankly he was tired of this meeting, the Butcher was irritating his sensibilities, and he had a headache.

Captain Anderson stood up next to Luke and began speaking in a polite but firm tone. "What Ambassador Udina is trying to say is that Delacour is merely competent. Yes, he is in charge of the Corsair teams, but they are mostly independent anyway. This competence tied with his constant stream of scandals, questionable political affiliations, and blatant xenophobia means that he is unfit for the position." Udina was grateful to the man. Anderson was friend and despite his military background was more of a diplomat sometimes than Udina could be.

The aid blustered for a moment before being ordered to sit down by an admiral. Admiral Hackett continued speaking where Anderson left off, gesturing calmly for Luke to sit down. His aging but still fit frame came to a parade rest as he addressed the rest of the admiralty "Shepard is correct. We don't have many options. In fact in my view we have no options. If there are no disagreements I'll run us through the _serious_ candidates and show why."

The Admirals' steady but tired voice was greeted with nods by the admiralty and politicians in attendance. He nodded and continued. "Let's begin with Luke Shepard since he is here." At this Luke looked a little startled, he obviously hadn't even realized that he had been considered. "He has the training, the name power, the service record, and he is loyal to the Alliance. He achieved both N7 and I7 designations, and is a registered Medical Doctor. He has Top Secret security clearance, and he has shown little to no bias against aliens, with the only exception being Batarians. However, he sends a bad message. His name sends a message of fear, not a great start for someone who is meant to send a message of cooperation and respect. He also is retired."

The aid who spoke up previously decided to put his foot in his mouth again. "And he is not particularly stable." Admiral Kahoku grabbed the back of the man's shirt and forced him to sit down. Udina almost hoped the man would open his mouth again, if he did Udina might get to see how much boot could go up one man's ass.

Admiral Hackett glared at the aid, and continued. "Delacour isn't an option for the reasons we already mentioned and so we will skip him. Next is Lt. Commander Adam Houser. He survived on Akuze, and his service record is spotless. He fits everything we need except for one thing." At this Hackett sighed pausing for a moment before continuing. "After Akuze, so many people dying around him, he's a mess. He suffers from PTSD and schizophrenia. The only reason he is still in the military is so PR teams can still use his name for recruitment." Hackett's voice grew melancholy near the end of the summary.

Udina grew pensive for a moment. He never met Houser personally, but Udina cared about war veterans. His grandfather had been one, and with a similar story to Houser. Udina remembered the nightmares, the horror, the madness that his grandfather had wrestled with for as long as Udina had known him.

With a sigh, Hackett continued and Udina focused his attention again. "Lastly we have Commander Sarah Shepard. N7 graduate and the Lion of Elysium. Married to Luke Shepard. Spotless service record. Only history that is concerning is she lived on Mindoir during the raids. She saw her family get killed. She has spent the past five years under my command and has served above and beyond. She is without a doubt, the best soldier I have ever seen. The problem is she is married to Luke. This close association has tainted the views of those around her in my opinion."

Udina shifted in his seat as the admiral spoke. He hated having to agree, but frankly humanity didn't have a lot of good options. Even a few bad ones had been put out there earlier in the meeting. ' _Oh yes, let's just remove the most wanted status from Kai Leng and invite him back here to make him SPECTRE. Oh, let's somehow revive Ethan Hunt. He did a good job on Thresca, surely if we BRING HIM BACK FROM THE DEAD, he can do it again. Idiots the lot of them._ ' To be fair though it was a politician that brought up the idea.

Udina brought his attention back to Hackett as he finished his summary. "As you can see Sarah Shepard is our only option. I'm putting her name forward. Ambassador?" Hackett passed it off to him.

"Seconded. Shepard is the most likely to pass both the SPECTRE selection and make humanity look good while doing it. That's all I have to say on the matter." The matter passed around the table, taking longer than Udina liked. His back ached, his head hurt, and he wished he were drunk, but Sarah Shepard was officially going to be the SPECTRE Candidate.

The meeting closed down without incident and people filed out of the room. They left slowly but finally only Udina, Hackett, the male Shepard, and Anderson were in the room. Udina glared balefully at Luke's back as the younger man stared out the window before finally speaking. "So, how did you get permission be part of the selection process? Blackmail? Bribery?"

Hackett interrupted. "I invited him."

"You, what." Udina hissed. Luke simply looked out the window of the conference room as Udina sputtered with rage. "Hackett, Luke is no longer part of the command structure. You cannot invite him to top secret meetings. He should never have known about it in the first place because he was a Fucking candidate." Hackett for his part just leaned back in his chair, and let Udina rage.

"Ambassador," Captain Anderson interrupted after a few minutes of diatribe. "We have more important things to deal with than your grudge match with Luke."

"Like what?" Udina growled, almost going into another rage. This time Luke interrupted him before he got started. "The Thanix cannon plans have been stolen."

Silence filled the room as a look of horror crossed Udina's face. "What?" Udina whispered. He suddenly understood why they were meeting after the meeting as it were. It was a disaster of the highest proportions.

"The Thanix cannon plans were stolen from my office. It was hard copies only. No trace of whoever took them. They don't have everything. We can still outfit the Alliance with the backups we have kept in the company vaults. And my company will _still_ do it for free." Here Luke sighed before continuing. "But we need to find whoever took those plans. My gut feeling says the Salarians did it, but it also doesn't feel right. None of the other races have cancelled their contracts with me, and I only work with governments. To make absolutely sure of that though, I need SPECTRE level access, thus today."

Udina took all this in. His blood pressure was going to skyrocket over the coming weeks, he could already tell. "Who else do you have tagged under the suspicious column, and why do you suspect the Salarians?" Udina sighed out.

Anderson responded. "Currently we suspect any of the other governments, Aria, Cerberus, the Shadow Broker, and the Andromeda Initiative. It possible that Eclipse could do it. They have the resources to so something like this, but frankly we aren't sure that they could make it this clean. There were no traces left. Everything was exactly like it should have been. Exactly like the Salarian STG teams operate."

Udina leaned back in his chair. "Is there any possibility that it was the Batarians? Or some as yet unknown group?"

"No, _they_ are the one government that we can safely discount. Batarians would have made it messy. SIU isn't known for its restraint. As for other groups? It's possible. It always is, but it isn't likely as far as we can tell." Anderson finished.

"Damn." Udina uttered. It was a sentiment shared by everyone else at the table.

Luke spoke up. "There is some good news, while they _did_ grab the cannon designs, they didn't grab the plans for the new power supplies, so they can build the cannons, but unless they have access to a battleship they won't be able to fire anything."

Admiral Hackett cut in. "Unless they already have something better. We can't make any assumptions." Luke nodded to concede the point.

Udina hummed to himself for a moment holding his anger in check until he could get to his rooms and a bottle of scotch. "Why did you invite me into this mess, Admiral?"

Hackett sighed and said "Ambassador, we need you to keep an eye on our allies at the citadel. If they know something about the Thanix Cannons, we need to know. Needless to say, that this is top secret. I trust you not to let political games get in the way?"

Udina growled to himself again. He knew an order when he heard one. Hackett technically didn't have the authority to order him, but this was military jurisdiction and Udina didn't care to find out how much trouble that aging Admiral could cause him. "Fine. But I will only give _you_ information. Not the Butcher. You can give it to him if you want, but he stays out of my way."

"That's fine." Hackett said. "Good. Then I'm leaving." Udina said, and he walked out the door.

"He's going to be trouble Hackett." Luke observed after Udina walked out.

"No, he won't. I'll keep him in line. What you need to be worrying about is the investigation on your end, and failing that how you are going to explain to your wife that you need to use her SPECTRE clearance for business purposes." The last sentence was said with much amusement.

"That is not what the clearance is being used for!" Luke sputtered as the two older military officers chuckled at his expense before settling down. Luke glared half-heartedly at them for a moment before the conversation turned serious again.

"Is Sarah really ready for this?" Anderson asked. Luke sighed. "I think so. Honestly, I would rather her just retire. She has been run ragged since I retired. First the PR and celebrity soldier stuff, then later the constant missions. Honestly, being a Spectre might make her less busy."

Anderson nodded. "She misses you by the way. I talked to her last week. Just came out of the Terminus. It's her last mission before Normandy."

Hackett cut in. "She will be on Earth for the next 3 months on leave while the last kinks in the Normandy are worked out, so you can spend a very late Christmas with her. Then 1 month of tests, and hopefully she passes whatever tests the Spectre wants her to complete."

Luke nodded tears in his eyes. It had been almost a year since he had seen his wife. It was true what the aid had said in the earlier meeting. Luke had never been the most stable human being, and Sarah was his support. "Thanks Admiral, Captain. It'll be good to see her."

The rest of the time the three men spent catching up, then Hackett had to leave. A few minutes later Anderson followed and Luke was left alone, staring out the window looking at empty space. "I hope I'm right." he whispered. "I hope you are ready, but if you aren't, I'll be there for you." And Luke Shepard turned and walked out of the room.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN. CHAPTER 2 is up! And faster than I thought it would be. Last time I recieved a review so I'll go ahead and cover the highlights of that real quick. I sent him a PM going into a little more detail but ill give you guys a highlight as well of it.**

 **Rick O'Shay25: 1. Yeah, Sarah is a common name for Shepard, but if it fits, it fits. 2. Yes, Sarah being represented like that does seem a little bit like Nepotism, however is it really nepotism when you really are the best choice for the job? I would say no. 3. Yeah, Luke demands a lot of respect or fear. A good chunk of that is based of of the lense of those around him. Luke isn't naturally intimidating, a good chunk of that is reputation, and him playing off that reputation.**

 **Imagine if you will a Special forces operative who killed a enemy camp. This camp numbered 20 people, thats a lot of trained fighters tha this guy took out by himself. The media finds out about it and suddenly it becomes 40 people he killed. Now even if you 'know' he only killed 20 your mind is still wondering how accurate your source is. Maybe he did kill 40. Maybe he did go into a berserker state. Maybe he is just as bad as the media portrays him as. Suddenly you feel a lot less comfortable around a guy that you were previously fine sitting across the table from. Now he seems like a little bit of a time bomb waiting to happen. Now add to that, he actively plays off that reputation, he uses it to fight politically, economically, and combatively. It isn't necessarily who he is, it's what he wants his enemies to see him as.**

 **4\. Thresca, It always felt weird to me that Torfan was one thing that happened 2 years after the Skyllian Blitz. To me it seems like there should have been a campaign to get to Torfan. The alliance just had a pirate force significant enough to be an actual threat to one of thier most successful colonies and they let that slide for 2 years? Yeah they beat the pirate force, but still. Thresca is my answer to that, a longer campaign that takes place over almost 2 years ending on Torfan. This is the reason the rest of the galaxy thinks of the Systems Alliance as a serious military player. More will be revealed later.**

 **One more thing. I still need a Beta and constructive criticism is always welcome. Please review this story and help me out.**

 **Chapter 2**

Dr. Luke Towler was frustrated. The colony guard that had stopped him simply couldn't wrap his mind around the fact that a 15-year-old wasn't in school, because he was on his way to work his shift at Mindoir Medical Center. "I don't believe that for a second." The slightly overweight 30-year-old said loudly to the teen. "Is it really so hard to take me to the hospital to check? I have patients to see." The boy exclaimed equally loudly.

The guard responded "Quiet you! Before I arrest you for disturbing the peace." He sighed. "Kids these days must think I'm an idiot. 'I'm a doctor' my ass." He grumbled. "You and I are going to the school to get you back to class." The tall man stated.

The argument had gone on for upwards of 10 minutes, and Luke was tired of it. "Look, if you will just call the hospital, ask them for Director Sanchez, she can verify my story. I am a Dr. serving my residency at Mindoir Medical." Luke repeated for what must have been the 10th time, the annoyance easily heard in his voice.

The guard didn't seem to be all that intelligent of a man. This time, rather than continue the argument, the guard grabbed him roughly by the shoulder and began hauling him towards his aircar, ignoring his protests. The colony guard quickly searched Luke for weapons and confiscated his omni-tool before roughly shoving the teen in the back seat.

Luke didn't resist too much. He had been on Mindoir for less than three weeks, and he didn't want to risk legal trouble when he had no friends and no lawyer within easy access. He made a note to himself to look into finding a decent lawyer at some point in the near future. So Luke didn't resist. He did however, not exercise his right to remain silent. He complained loudly about his treatment and that the guard wouldn't even check his story.

When they arrived at the school Luke stepped out of the guards aircar, only to have his shoulder again roughly gripped by the taller and stronger man. Then the boy was almost literally dragged to the administration building where the guard began to pace angrily waiting for the receptionist to end her comm.

Luke sat there sullenly in the chair he had been roughly placed in. He may have been a Dr. and mature for his age but he was still 15 and was, he felt, occasionally entitled to act like it. The door which he had come through opened and a shock of red hair peaked in before moving to a chair across from Luke and sitting down. As she sat down, the receptionist finally ended her call and gave her full attention to the annoyed colony guard. "This boy goes to school here. I caught him playing hooky. Came up with some story about being on his way to the Hospital for his shift." The man exclaimed in a loud voice.

At this point, Luke interjected. "I do work at the hospital, it is after all, why I am wearing a lab coat." Directing his attention to the hopefully more reasonable woman he said. "Ma'am, could you please try to pull up my file at your school." He paused as she tried to do just that, using the ID he handed to her. Nothing came up. Her eyebrows raised and she said. "It appears as though you are not a student at our school." she said. "It seems he was telling the truth." she gave a pointed glance at the guard.

The colony guard began to bluster and turn red. "Ma'am, can you please, call the hospital, ask for Director Sanchez and ask her if she has a missing 15-year-old Dr. Luke Towler? I'll wait." The overweight colony guard tried to interrupt the woman, however she glared at him with green eyes till he was quiet. "I believe I will young man." She said. She began the call on her omni-tool. "Hello, I need to speak with Director Sanchez."

" _This is Director Sanchez."_ A voice with a no-nonsense tone said soon after the call was transferred a couple of times. "Hello Director, this is Hannah Shepard at the Mindoir Academy. Are you missing a 15-year-old Dr. this morning?" The now identified receptionist said. _"I am, as a matter of fact. Actually, I just got done seeing two of his patients. Tell me. Where is he at?"_ Luke gulped. The Director sounded pissed. He just hoped she would blame the colony guard and not him.

"Well, funny story. He apparently got picked up on his way to work this morning by an overzealous colony guard that refused to check his story. The guard brought him to the school and had me check what class he was in. But he wasn't in a class. I chose to check out his story and it is apparently true." The last two words were said in a tone that was clearly directed at the guard and made him go slightly pale. Hannah Shepard pinned him to the wall with her glare.

" _Why am I not surprised? Tell Dr. Towler to get his sorry ass to work. I have my own patients to see. Idiot guard. Salarians have Drs. at 16 on a regular basis but a human Dr. that age is just too much to handle, Idiots."_ The other end of the line grumbled before the call cut out.

The guard was now a little pale and looking at Luke with a look of partial apology and mostly don't-tell-my-boss-please. Luke's grin was absolutely predatory but his thoughts were disrupted by a "huthmm." Hannah Shepard got both parties attention by clearing her throat. "Now it seems clear to me that you need to apologize to the good Dr." She said giving the guard the stink eye.

The guard gave a halfhearted apology, before he handed the young Dr. his confiscated omni-tool, and rushed out of the room to avoid the green-eyed woman's glare. Her harsh eyes followed him out before turning their gaze to the young Dr. "Now young man." She said. "Do you have a way to Mindoir Hospital?"

Luke shook his head as he faced the brown-haired woman. "No I don't. Unfortunately, the laws here keep me from buying a skycar. Apparently 15 isn't old enough for me to drive." He grumbled to himself. He understood the reasoning behind the laws and even agreed with it. Before the age of 18 most people were just too easily distracted to be safe drivers. And highly intelligent Dr. or not, Luke understood that he was no exception, no matter how much he wished otherwise.

Hannah Shepard frowned. Mindoir wasn't a big colony, only a couple hundred thousand spread over a vast amount of land. Public transport was scarce due to both the low population and more importantly, the low population density. There were plans to ensure that it became more common, but for now at least, the only real public transport was found in the small spaceport. She decided she would talk to her supervisor, and take the young Dr. to the hospital drop him off and return. The hospital was less than 30 minutes away so it shouldn't take more than an hour. "Give me a few moments and let me see what I can do." She said.

As she moved to go speak with the schools principle she noticed her daughter sitting in the room, quietly. She moved over to speak with her for a moment. "Hey, Hun." She said in greeting. "What's wrong?" She asked.

The red headed Sarah Shepard spoke quietly with hints of pain leaking into her voice. "Well, you know how you said never to punch the face?" Hannah nodded hesitantly, fearing what was about to come out of her daughters' mouth. "Well, Timothy tried to "mark me as his" again today. So…" here Sarah paused for a moment of embarassment before continuing. "I punched him. Repeatedly. In the face. And maybe kicked him in the stomach a few times. And may have broken a couple of fingers in the process." Here Sarah stopped.

Hannah Shepard wasn't sure what to feel. She never had liked Timothy and finding out that he was accosting her daughter made her feel a little sick inside. However, finding out that he got what was coming to him was a joy. The mother in her was worried and frustrated that her daughter had gotten into a fight and gotten hurt. The Alliance Serviceman in her, was annoyed that her daughter made the mistake of punching Timothy in the face.

Hannah settled for exasperation and said. "Stay here and don't move. I will be right back. Hey Doc!" She called from across the room. Luke looked up and Hannah waved him over. "Ok. Both of you need to get to the hospital. Give me a moment to notify my supervisor and I'll take you. Dr. I would appreciate it if you could take a look at my daughters' hands." With a chastising look to her daughter and a grateful one to Luke she quickly moved to the back rooms.

"What seems to be the problem?" Luke said as he waved his omni-tool over Sarah's hands. She looked at him oddly for a moment before repeating what she told her mother. He looked up at her as he finished his scans and said. "Well, would you like the good news, or the bad news first?" He paused and then spoke again before she could choose. "The bad news! Wonderful choice. The bad news is that your left hand has three broken fingers and your pinky is dislocated."

Sarah glared at him with baleful blue eyes and said. "But you—" "Unhhuh, I wasn't finished. The good news that your right hand is perfectly fine apart from a couple of bruises." Luke completed his thought just as Hannah Shepard walked back into the room. "I suggest that next time you decide to hit unwanted suitors that you aim for the throat, stomach or groin." The young Dr. said.

"Not the throat." Called out Hannah as she approached the teens. "No need to accidently kill someone, and Timothy isn't worth the legal trouble. What's the damage?" She asked a little worry entering her voice.

"Nothing too bad. A few broken fingers and a dislocated pinky. So long as we get her to the hospital I can treat her there. In the meantime, I'm just going to run a cryo program that will keep her hands cool, and help reduce the swelling." Luke stated. "If you get me to the hospital in the next 25 minutes I'll even heal her hand for free. If it's after that you will need to get one of the other Drs. to do it."

"Why?" asked Hannah confused as she moved to the door. "Because Director Sanchez will kill me after that." Luke replied with a nervous chuckle. He wasn't entirely sure that his joke actually was a joke and not the truth. Hannah chuckled and quickly guided the teens outside.

"Well, let's get moving then." Hannah stated as she hustled the two teens to the bright red aircar. It was an older model, without a lot of the bells and whistles that came with more modern versions. Things like massaging chairs and autopilot just weren't available when the aircar was made.

Luke helped in the young Sarah and buckled her into her seat before moving to sit down in his. Both sat in the back while Hannah took the controls. Hannah started the aircar and deftly piloted it into the air. Then she began to speak. "So. I don't think we have been properly introduced. I am Hannah Shepard, and this is my daughter, Sarah." She said calmly never glancing away from the controls.

"And I am Dr. Luke Towler. At your service." At this point, Sarah interrupted. "No way!" She exclaimed loudly disbelief coloring her voice. "No way, you're a Dr., I don't believe that." Luke glanced at her, annoyed, as his omni-tool hovered over her hands. Cool vapors drifted off the purple glow of his omni-tool as the cryo-program did it's work. "Regardless of your opinion, I _am_ a Dr. and I'm currently serving my residency at Mindoir Medical Center." An annoyed tone began to leak into his words.

Hannah picked up on this and backed him up. "I checked with the Medical Director. He's telling the truth, dear." She said. "If you had been paying attention when the guard was in the room you would have known that." Luke muttered darkly.

"I was kind of ignoring you _because I broke half my fingers."_ Sarah said, annoyed at the younger boy and the situation in general. "And if you had been paying attention, it would have taken your mind off the pain." Luke gritted out, before saying. "I will give you credit though, you have good pain tolerance to keep from interrupting our conversation."

Hannah stole a look at the back seats, before asking with a little worry. "How's your hand?" Her time in the Alliance Navy had taught her to stay cool under pressure, and while she was worried about her daughter, it wasn't the time to fuss. Doing so right now would just cause her daughter embarrassment, and annoy her. Better to fuss at her, and scold her when they were home, behind closed doors.

Sarah looked up, and mumbled. "I'm fine." Her hands were a little cold but she wasn't going to complain. She looked at the only male in the car and took stock of him. He was fairly short with brown hair and blue eyes. His frame was thin and lanky and his skin was pale from too much time indoors. 'Likely in a lab.' She thought to herself. His purple omni-tool glowed brightly, illuminating the interior of the aircar and giving him a vague air of mystery.

"Are you done ogling me yet?" Luke asked. His voice was annoyed, but his face carried a slight smirk as Sarah went a bit pink and Hannah glanced to the back seat. "Uh, I wasn't, I mean, I was, but not like that. UHHH." she spluttered as Luke snickered and Hannah laughed at her discomfort. Sarah winced as her hand shifted off the armrest.

"I believe what my daughter is trying to say, is that she finds you curious, not necessarily attractive." Hannah paused before continuing. "I must say, I find myself curious as well. It isn't every day that there is a 15-year-old Dr. on a colony as small as this one. As far as I know that isn't particularly common anywhere. much less Mindoir." She said.

"Did your parents bring you out here?" The older Shepard asked. Luke hid a grimace at the mention of his parents before answering. "No. I'm out here alone." He said the tone in his voice making it clear that route of conversation was closed.

Hannah absorbed that information and all of its possibilities before asking. "Well, Why Mindoir? What made you choose to come to our little slice of farmland rather than a more prestigious Medical Center? Someplace on the Citadel perhaps, or John Hopkins back on earth? I'm sure they would have taken you."

"Mostly for the quiet." Luke responded. "I was born on Earth and lived there all my life. The problem was that it was… suffocating at times." He shifted in his seat as he continued. "Open sky and rolling hills appealed to me. As for other medical centers? Unfortunately, most of the research hospitals on both the Citadel and on Earth are filled with politics, and every hospital these days is a research hospital."

"There my age would play against me. Most of the younger Drs. would feel threatened by me. I have one Doctorate degree right now and am certified to work on almost every species except the Volus, Quarians, and Batarians. I am 3 months away from getting a second doctorate in business, and I am well versed in everything from biochemistry to epidemiology. That alone would make the younger Drs. jealous. Older Drs. would want to play favorites, with me being their first choice. Everyone wants to be the mentor to the child genius." Luke went quiet for a moment before continuing. "At the same time, I couldn't be considered for any promotions or pay increases because why would I? I'm just 15. Child geniuses don't need to be payed the same as 'real doctors.' Also, no one would take a young Director seriously, no matter what department he ran." He said this with a little bitterness entering his voice.

"Here," Luke gestured with one arm, his other maintaining its position over Sarah's broken hands. "I don't have to worry about that as much. Yes, other Drs. are a little jealous, but I can't be everywhere and neither can they. There are more than enough patients for each of us, and that is unlikely to change anytime soon. I can't be promoted, but due to the colonies small size it's unlikely many of them will be either. It's perfect for me to come and spend a few years here. So, when one of my old professors sent me a message saying that he had a friend who ran a hospital on Mindoir and could use a good resident doctor, I came." He finished, slightly out of breath.

Hannah and Sarah stayed quiet the whole time, absorbing his words with interest. The hum of the aircars engine filled the cabin for a few moments as fields and streams flew past. The passengers silence was broken by Hannah who said. "You are an interesting young man. Thank you for answering my questions."

Luke replied. "You're welcome. Mind if I ask you a few?" He asked as he once again shifted in his seat. "I'm a little curious about you as well."

Hannah thought about it for a moment, as the hills flew by. "Shoot." She said. She was curious as to what questions he would ask. "Why did you come to Mindoir?" he asked. Hannah thought about it for a little bit, gathering her thoughts before she replied. "For my husband and my daughter." She paused to make some adjustments on the controls before she continued. "I grew up a military brat. Dad was a marine, and once I got old enough I joined the SA as a serviceman. Joined at the perfect time. SA had just been created to explore the galaxy beyond our solar system. I wanted to see the stars." She chuckled. "I did, but perhaps more importantly, It was there that I met my husband."

Hannah paused for a moment, reliving memories and deciding how much to share, then she chuckled again. "Hunter was a young man who wanted to serve in the military, and then find a place to farm. I thought he was an idiot back then, a cute idiot, but an idiot. Sometimes I still do think that. One thing led to another and we eventually fell in love. We got married when I was 21, much to my dad's chagrin. It was around that time that the SA launched its first colony and Hunter was enamored. He began planning a farm on a colony world, under a new sun. I admit, I was a little enthralled by the idea as well." Luke shifted in his seat, intrigued by the story.

"Then, I got pregnant." She stated bluntly. "Back then there were still a lot of unknowns about how space travel could affect pregnancies. So, I was given two options: A desk job on Earth, or an honorable medical discharge. I chose the discharge. I wanted to be able to spend time with my child." Here she glanced at Sarah before again focusing on what was in front of the aircar. "A year later, Sarah was born and soon after that Hunter's time was up. He chose not to reenlist and instead he got a job that paid a little better. And we saved up for when we could go to the colonies. But before we got too far, the FCW got started."

Here unseen by the other two, her face darkened. Her tone of voice got strained as she said. "I, lost a lot of friends during that damned war. A lot of good friends." She took a deep breath in and sighed. "But enough about then. Less than a year after the war started it was over, and life returned to normal. Mostly. There were aliens now, but almost everything was cheaper. The Asari and Volus invested in human markets, helping our economy grow. Soon we were able to afford to come out here, and so we did. Sarah was just a baby back then. She was so cute." Here Sarah interrupted. "MOM! You can't say stuff like that!"

"Oh, sorry Honey. I got lost in the memories." Hannah looked a little abashed as she continued piloting the aircar. She did her best not to embarrass her daughter more than necessary. Every once and awhile it was either deserved or just slipped past her. She idly mused as to where the time had gone, before she returned to the present.

"Now, I have a job as a receptionist and Hunter runs a farm. Sarah, as you can tell, is still a student. Mindoir was never quite my love, but my family means more to me than anything and I want to stay close to them." She concluded. Hannah debated silently with herself whether to ask Luke about his past, before finally deciding against it. He clearly wasn't comfortable talking about his parents, so best not to push. 'At least not yet.' She thought to herself. Just as she was about to ask him about his work her daughter beat her to it.

"How are _you_ a Dr.?" Sarah asked. More than a hint of jealousy was in her tone. Luke recognized it immediately, it was the same tone he had heard all of his life from everyone. 'Oh, no. Here we go again.' He thought.

"Sarah." Hannah's voice had a note of warning to it. "What? It's a valid question." Sarah said her voice a little challenging. "Tone." Hannah's voice brooked no argument. Sarah let out an insincere "Sorry." But her face still showed that she expected an answer.

"I can give you my answer, but you won't really like it." Luke said with a sigh. "I am a Dr. because of two things: genetics and hard work. My genetics give me both a higher than average intelligence, and I also don't need to sleep as much as you likely do. My hard work speaks for itself."

"There has to be more to it than that." Sarah said vehemently. Hannah stepped in with another warning to her daughter. "Sarah. Tone." Sarah ignored her mother continuing. "I have more intelligence than most people and I work hard too. Doesn't mean I'm a Dr." she stated, before grimacing as Luke's purple omni-tool dipped too close to her hand.

Luke didn't hesitate to respond, and ignoring her discomfort he shot back. "My intelligence is above that of most Salarians. They, at the most average point, rank 115 on the IGIQ. I rank at 130. Most humans rank around 85-100." He said proudly before continuing. "I only need to sleep 2-3 hours a night. Almost all of the rest of my time is spend working on papers, homework, actual work, and necessities like eating, and I have been that way almost all of my life. You hang out with friends or go to the holos, I take a chemistry exam. You read a book, I read research papers. You sleep, I work. That, is why I'm a Dr." Luke's tone had gone almost as frigid as the omni-tool program. His voice was hard as stone. This was an explanation he had given many times throughout his 15 years and his bad start to the day hadn't helped its delivery any.

The responses to his explanation were varied, but with few exceptions people hated it when you told them they could work harder and be where you are. Luke understood something that most people didn't, intelligence was growable. Discipline was growable. 'Goddamn my father, but he was good at forcing those two traits out of me.' Luke thought as his green eyes shifted away from Sarah, turning instead to face the outside of the aircar. Silence filled the car the rest of the way to the hospital as purple light illuminated the interior.

Upon arrival, Luke helped Sarah out of the care and took her into the ER, while Hannah went around to land the aircar. Upon entry into the spacious waiting room Luke quickly walked up to the desk and checked in before waving Sarah into the back hallways towards the hospital proper. He led her to a nurses station before grabbing her a chair and telling her to sit down.

"Give me a moment to check in with Director Sanchez, and I can get you situated. Ok?" His voice was a lot calmer now than it had been in the car, Sarah noted. She felt a little ashamed for her jealous tone earlier, and was sorry she had touched a sore spot with the younger boy. "Ok." Sarah replied before wincing in pain. Her hand was beginning to swell a little, now that the cool temperatures from the omni-tool were gone.

Luke called a nurse and asked for Dr. Sanchez's location. As soon as he got it he began walking in that direction. He regretted his earlier tone. It had been a long day, before it even began, but that was no excuse. He took his temper out on the Shepard women just for asking a few questions that they couldn't possibly know would trigger his anger. 'I need to be better than that.' He thought to himself. He decided to apologize before the Shepard women left.

He continued to berate himself as he walked down the halls of the hospital before he finally found Director Sanchez. "There you are. Finally." She said. Annoyance was written all over her face and voice as she strode towards him. "Did that guard give you any more trouble?" she asked gruffly. "Because if he did I'll make sure his career gets terminated. That kind of stupidity deserves to get removed from the gene pool." She grumbled.

She was a tall woman with silver hair and dark brown eyes. Her South American heritage was clearly written on her features, though her voice carried with it a thick French accent.

Luke was relieved that the director didn't blame him for being late. Luke had learned in his first week not to cross the woman. She ran a tight ship, but if you did good work, you had nothing to worry about and she would go out of her way to help if you needed it. "No ma'am. He left me alone. Sorry it took so long to get back. I can't drive, so I had to get a ride from one of the school administrators. Her daughter broke several fingers during school. So, Mrs. Shepard brought her with us. I was just going to fix her hand before going to check on my patients." Luke said this almost as a question, making his deference to her wishes clear.

"Was that a question or a statement Dr.?" The Director said in a chastising tone. "Statement Ma'am." He said quickly. She waved him off and said "Get to it then." Before turning and continuing her rounds.

Luke wasn't quite sure why but conversations with the director always felt weird. She ran her hospital almost like a military base, but she had a 'mama bear' attitude when others interfered with her staff. The woman had an intimidating presence, and everyone felt it. It wasn't uncommon for the nurses to gossip about the possible reasons she was so intimidating, behind her back of course. In the three weeks Luke worked for the hospital he had heard everything from military experience, to Salarian lab experiments quoted as a reason for it. Personally, he leaned towards the military experience, but with how chilling it could be to be stared down by the woman…

His thoughts about his employer were disrupted as he approached the two Shepard women. He heard Hannah ask "How's the pain, Hun?" his gait slowed as he neared them. They looked up as he arrived and Sarah said. "I'll be fine mom." Before quieting and looking away from him.

Luke quietly helped them to an empty exam room before saying "Give me one moment to look up your medical file." a couple of moments passed as he read through Sarah's medical history. "Hmm... Any known allergies?" he asked.

Hannah took over the conversation in her daughters' stead saying "No known allergies to medication." Here Luke paused before asking in a hushed tone "Any biotic potential?" Hannah muttered a quick "No." but Sarah interrupted and said in an equally hushed and slightly ashamed tone "Maybe." at this admission, Hannah stared at her daughter in momentary shock.

Sarah continued, fumbling over words as she did so. "A few weeks ago, I was helping dad with some farm equipment. He wanted me to get a wrench for him, and I didn't really want too. I imagined that the wrench came to me. It didn't, but…" Here Sarah paused before continuing at a near whisper. "I could swear that it jumped into my hand as I got close to it. I was going to tell you mom, but I didn't want you to worry. I haven't told dad yet either." She finished before falling silent.

"Thank you. That's what I needed" The lone male in the room said carefully before making sure the door was closed. Luke debated with himself for a moment before saying "Ok. Thank you for telling me with that. I need to run a quick scan." Luke turned on his omni tool and went to run the test but before he could, Hannah grabbed his arm tightly.

"This goes nowhere."" Hannah said in a threatening whisper. "Not her records, not to other Drs., and I want the history that the test was run wiped from your tool before we leave. Understood?" Luke looked Hannah in the eye. He was conflicted, and a little intimidated. Slowly he nodded. "I understand." He said.

Upon his acceptance of her, _very nonnegotiable,_ terms, Hannah removed her hand from his arm. Red marks showed up where her hands had been, and Luke wasn't sure, but suspected he was going to have a few extra bruises tomorrow.

Luke shook it off, and began the test, quietly taking mental notes as he did so. The room was silent apart from the hum of his omnitool, as he checked and double checked his results. Finally, he looked up to look first at Sarah, then at her mother. "I have good news and bad news." He said with all the softness his 15-year-old form could muster. "Which do you want first?"

Hannah responded before her daughter could speak. "Bad." She said, her voice quavering. "Your daughter does have an extensive eezo network running throughout her body. That is the bad news. The good news, is that your daughter is a fairly powerful biotic as far as it goes." Here Hannah glared at him. "How, exactly is that good news?" she growled.

"Do you love your daughter?" Luke asked softly. With zero hesitation, and clearly offended by the question, Hannah growled out "Absolutely." "Then," Luke continued. "You want her to be able to defend herself when it eventually gets out." Sarah whimpered here in fear and a little pain as her hands unintentionally clenched at the words.

Luke looked at Sarah before returning his gaze to her mother. "Let me fix her hand." He said before grabbing painkillers specialized for biotics. "Why did you even have to ask about biotics?" Hannah asked, partly out of frustration at the situation and partly out of genuine curiosity.

Luke responded softly as he began injecting the drug into Sarah's broken arm. "Eezo creates mass effect fields by application of electrical charges. Nerves allow for small levels of electricity to be transmitted across the body. Understand?" He paused and waited for Hannah's hesitant nod. "Ok, so now there are two primary forms of painkiller. The first are opiates, these act like the way-too-cheerful friend that is sunshine and rainbows and just generally is an optimist. They _cover_ and distract from pain. They don't actually stop it. The problem is that they only effect the brain, so electrical charges can still go all throughout the body as the pain gets worse. You just won't feel that pain. What this means for biotics is that they can unintentionally damage themselves and others. This is because _modern_ opiates can affect all nerve impulses equally. Almost all nerve impulses become equally clouded and difficult to use. This in turn, causes the biotic to not be sure of two things: Firstly, if they are actually using the nerves that connect to eezo nodes and secondly which electrical impulses they are providing." Here again Luke paused to make sure Hannah and Sarah were following. They weren't.

"Uhhhhh" he groaned before saying "In simple terms, one type of painkiller, opiates, can cause biotics to accidently kill themselves. It has no good sides. If you have implants, the problem becomes one of power. You can accidently Warp yourself and not know it because of the opiates, and your implant allows you to have one charge, positive or negative, running consistently through the nodes. In a person without implants, they can accidently wind up pushing and pulling themselves to pieces because they can't control the charge. Do you understand why I asked now?" Luke asked calmly as he stared at the now white faces of the Shepards. They both slowly nodded.

"Now the pain killer that I just gave her is aspirin based. Aspirin based painkillers actually stop the pain at the source. No pain, means less in the way of electrical signals, and because it doesn't affect the brain you can actually tell what nerves you are controlling. So, no chance of you accidently killing yourself. Make sense?" Luke asked for what he hoped was the final time. Both Shepards nodded quickly.

But Hannah stopped then said. "Hold on one minute, though. How do the opiates cause biotics to accidently warp themselves? Can't they simply choose not to use nerves that connect with eezo nodes?" she asked.

Luke sighed. "Unfortunately, no. Biotics have to have incredible nervous control to actually use biotics effectively. The implants reduce the amount of nervous control needed, but the need still exists. Biotics also tend to tie their biotic abilities to gestures. However, normally they can just use the gestures without triggering the biotics. Modern opiates have two major side effects that are relevant for this discussion. First, they dull the mind causing similar, but stronger effects than alcohol does. The second is they affect motor control. It does more than just slow reflexes, it actually affects grouped nerves. So if you try to move your arm per say, you will actually use more nerves than are actually needed to move your arm, including those that might be linked to eezo nodes. Because your mind is dulled you don't realize it, and because you have trouble feeling pain, if you can feel it at all, you don't realize that you are killing yourself until it is too late. Does _that_ make sense?" Luke got an affirmative nod this time.

He moved over to Sarah now, gently grabbing the broken fingers. Luke looked Sarah in the eye and said, "The bad news about aspirin based pain meds, is that they don't work as well." before he reset the fingers, painfully. Sarah's pained grunts were louder than she intended as Luke slowly fixed each finger in place and slid a cast onto it, occasionally scanning the bones to make sure that everything was in place. It took him a few minutes to finish, much to Sarah's chagrin, she had hoped it would be faster than that so she wouldn't be in as much pain. She winced and gritted her teeth with each finger that was placed into its proper position. Finally, Luke was finished.

"There you go. I would apologize for the pain, but it was unavoidable. Leave the casts on and come see me in two weeks." He said. "You think they will be healed in two weeks?" She asked.

"No." he scoffed. "It will take at least a solid month before I'm comfortable with actually removing the casts, though the pinky might be mostly healed by then. Two weeks is enough for me to tell if it is healing properly or if I need to rebreak the fingers and try again."

"Also, I advise getting a light cryo-program on your omnitool, hold it over your hand for at least 30 minutes a day. Do not apply ice directly though. That will help with the swelling. After this week, you shouldn't need to do that anymore though." Luke said.

At this, Sarah groaned and said. "Don't suppose you will at least give me a Drs. note?" At this both Hannah and Luke laughed before he chuckled out "Maybe. I won't ask for you to be excused from homework, but for a couple of days you really don't need to move your fingers at all. What do you think Mrs. Shepard?" Hannah with a smile still on her lips thought for a moment before giving her permission. "I suppose it would be ok. But only for a few days. No more than a week, and all of your homework will be finished young lady. Besides it would get you away from Timothy." At the last sentence, she growled her mood effectively dampened. Any tension that was released by the laughterwas now back in full force.

"Perhaps it would be best to talk to Timothy directly. In the principal's office, perhaps?" suggested Luke.

Hannah wasn't pleased with the idea of Timothy getting off that lightly, but couldn't do anything about it. "Probably." she said. Her brown hair drifted in front of her face before being brushed back and tucked behind her ears.

"Now, do you want to continue our previous conversation?" Luke asked. "I know any talk of biotics is a little touchy right now, but you need to know some things." Here Hannah growled as Sarah shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "Like what?" Hannah growled out.

"Firstly, your daughter will need an implant and likely some training." Luke said his voice creeping down to a lower than normal volume. "Biotics that don't have training are easy targets for some of the more, militant anti-biotic movements. Groups like that can be very dangerous to both biotics and their families and they are growing in popularity. They also have a disturbing tendency to find biotic targets." Hannah growled and stepped in front of her daughter. "That wasn't a threat Mrs. Shepard, just an unfortunate reality." Luke said, his voice squeaking a little in fear, as he backed up. Hannah Shepard was intimidating.

"What, exactly do you suggest then?" Hannah asked, a little mollified.

"Sarah will need to have implants sometime within the next year or two. I don't think now is a particularly good option as she could still grow a bit. Preferably next year or the year after. Next year L3 implants are supposed to come out, those should be superior to the L2s we currently have. L2s have been known to cause anything from headaches to partial paralysis. The problem is, the L3 implants are going to be expensive and the surgery doesn't come cheap either. My advice is keep it in mind for the near future." At this he ended and approached Sarah.

"Before you guys head out, I want to apologize to you Sarah, for the things I said in the car on the way over. My tone was out of line." He bit out the words. He wasn't used to apologizing. The words felt foreign, and an apologetic tone wasn't one he was used to having. It made him uncomfortable.

"I'm sorry too. I should have minded my tone better and not gotten as jealous as I did. It's humbling to meet a Dr. my age and I, well, you know." Sarah, wasn't used to apologizing either. She was pretty sure most people weren't. Still, her parents taught her to do what was right, and in this case what was right was apologizing.

Hannah looked at the two young people. She was proud of her daughter, if a little surprised. Sarah was usually a little more reticent to apologize. Hannah attributed it to her pain being reduced, and the fact that the young Dr. had apologized first. Sarah looked exhausted and emotionally worn. Today had not been a good one for anyone who stood in the room. Hannah resolved to get her daughter back home and then get back to work. "We better get going Sarah. I'll take you home and then get back to work. Thank you, Dr., I'll set up an appointment to see you in two weeks?" Hannah asked.

"Yeah. Talk to the receptionist on your way out. Tell her I said no charge and I want to set up an appointment with you in two weeks. She will take care of it." Luke said.

"I'll pay for my daughters' medical expenses. I have the money and I am not a charity case." Hannah said. "I know you're not, but I said if you got me here in 25 minutes I'd cover the cost. Don't worry about it and just worry about getting your daughter home." Luke replied a little impatiently.

"Fine." Hannah replied. She felt like she was missing something fairly important, but she wasn't sure just what that was. She decided to listen to the boy, for now at least. Luke left to go work his shift and the Shepard women soon were walking out of the hospital.

As they approached the car, Sarah decided to speak. "Mom, why were you so rough on Dr. Towler?" Hannah thought for a few moments before responding. "You mean, why did I threaten him, and take that tone with him when biotics were brought up?" Hannah paused and watched her daughter nod slowly.

"I love you, more than anything Sarah. I would do anything to protect you. Biotics are not treated well throughout Alliance space. I-" she paused, took a deep breath and continued. "I don't want to scare you, but some have even been killed. I don't know Dr. Towler well enough to know that he wouldn't turn on you. That he wouldn't try to hurt you. So, I threatened him. I scared him. I did that so that hopefully he is more scared of me, than he is of whoever might try to hurt you." At this Hannah felt a little guilt at the way she treated the boy. She didn't like it, but she stood by her decision. Nothing mattered more than her daughter. She would do a lot worse than just scare some kid to keep her daughter safe.

Sarah was quiet for a few moments. "I, ok Mom." She said, sighing as she did so. Hannah looked back and saw a slightly perturbed look on her daughter's face. "If it helps honey, I'll apologize to him when we see him in a couple of weeks, ok?" Hannah asked. At this her daughter brightened not much, but a little.

Hannah felt a little better at that. 'Maybe' she thought, 'I could invite him over for dinner, it would be a good chance to learn more about him, make sure he can't hurt my daughter, and if Hunter is cleaning his rifle when we arrive all the better, it might lend a little more credence to my previous threat.' She smiled to herself. She had a plan, and maybe it would work out well for everyone. It might even answer some questions she had about the boy.

"Mom? How are we going to tell Dad, that I am a biotic?" at this Hannah thought for a moment. "Just let me worry about that, ok? Your Dad won't have any problems with you being a biotic. It's a bit of a shock, but he has had worse. I'll tell him tonight ok? In the mean time when we get home go ahead and take a nap. I'll let your teachers know that you won't be back for a few days, and get any homework assignments that you might have, ok?" Hannah said.

Sarah grimaced as she shifted around and her hand bumped the armrest. "Sounds good to me." She responded.

The rest of the trip was quiet as Sarah contemplated the young Dr. Her friends would no doubt not believe her if she told them about the young man. There was too much wrong with the idea of someone their age being a Dr. As she gazed out the window Sarah wondered what she could achieve, if she was willing to work for it. she wondered if the young Dr. thought it was worth it. He couldn't have had much of a childhood, his life was probably devoid of friends, and was definitely devoid of fun. Sarah decided then that she would try to be a friend to the young Dr. Maybe she should convince her mother to invite him over, if he could spare the time. Something to think about at the very least.

Upon arriving home Sarah went upstairs and straight to bed. It had been a long day and she hurt. Once Sarah was inside, Hannah flew the car out across the plains of Mindoir on her way back to the school, as she did she called her husband on her omnitool. " _Hey Honey. What's up?"_ a cheerful voice responded almost a sigh Hannah told her husband "Sarah broke her fingers today. I took her to the Hospital and now she is at home. I sent her to bed for a nap, but she probably won't sleep for too long. We need to talk tonight. Ok?" a slightly worried note colored her voice. _"Ok. I take it this has to wait for face to face?"_ "Yeah. It does." Hannah responded to her husband.

" _Ok. How is Sarah doing? And what did she do to break her fingers?"_ Hunter Shepard asked. At this Hannah chuckled darkly. "You remember the boy Sarah always talks about, Timothy? He as she put it 'tried to mark her as his' and she punched him in the face a few times, and then kicked him in the stomach. That's a small part of our talk. We need to talk to our daughter about appropriate use of force. I'm going to talk to Principle Stevens about it, and get the recordings too. As for how Sarah is doing, she is tired and sore. Her hands are a little swollen and she will be downloading a cryo-program tonight to help with the swelling." Hannah finished.

" _Ok. I'll come back home in about an hour. Pretty much everything else can be managed by the drones at this point anyway. What time do you think you will be back home?"_ Hunter asked. Hannah replied "No later than 6:00, I will need to finish everything for the day and then catch up on what I missed this morning."

" _Ok I'll make dinner then. See you when you get home Honey."_ With those words the call ended and Hannah Shepard focused on how to make Little Timmy's life miserable. It wouldn't be too hard, after all the school had cameras covering everything but the bathrooms, and this was hardly Timothy's first offence. Hannah Shepard was on the warpath.

 **Well, that is chapter 2. If you have suggestions I would appreciate them. I know the dialgoue is a little stiff and I need to work on transitions probably too. As always please review, or if you want to Beta PM me.**

 **Ta Ta.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Here it is guys, a new chapter of A New Mass. Sorry it took so long, this chapter just didn't want to be written. This is the third draft thus far and I still feel it was a little week. Probably too much exposition. Still, It needed to get out there.**

 **As always, Please leave a review, if you want to beta for me I would appreciate it. Go ahead and PM me if you are interested. Constructive criticism is welcome. In the meantime: ON TO THE STORY!**

 **Chapter 3**

Timothy wasn't nearly as much of a problem as Hannah had feared he would be. Principle Stevens had pulled up the video, seen what had happened, and had immediately called Timothy to his office. It hadn't been pretty. Or rather, It was beautiful, if you were Hannah Shepard.

Sarah hadn't gone into quite enough detail when she stated that Timothy had tried to "Claim her as his own." Apparently, that included trying to grope her breasts, and following her to the bathroom. Hannah couldn't help but feel, that contrary to her words earlier in the day, Sarah should aim for the throat next time.

Principle Stevens apparently agreed, Timothy had wound up in the custody of a colony guard for the rest of the day, and the only reason he wasn't looking at sexual harassment charges was that he was 16. Principle Stevens had, after expelling the young wannabe rapist, begun complaining that he would rather have "shot the little bastard."

Hannah smirked to herself. When Timothy's dad had arrived at the school, she got the feeling the man would rather have left his son in jail. The man's rage was near biblical. He was well known for having both a temper and excellent character. Though everyone knew he wouldn't physically hurt his son, he might work Timothy to the point that Tim wished he was dead. While Hannah wished worse on the boy, she knew that this outcome was likely all that she could get.

Hannah was disappointed in her daughter's choice in targets, though. The face was one of the worst places to punch a person, unless you had some form of glove on to soften the blow to your hands. That was deserving of a lecture tonight, and a refresher on self-defense when Sarah's hand was healed enough to use.

This line of thought led to even more frustrating problems, ones that would not be resolved so quickly. Sarah's biotic ability, how to protect her, and how to break it to her father were problems that if handled poorly could result in her death. It would be rough, but Hannah was less worried about Hunter's reaction, and more worried about the other two problems that would crop up down the road.

The young Dr. was right, anti-biotic movements would likely find out about Sarah eventually. Some Dr. would slip up, or Sarah wouldn't be quite cautious enough while practicing with her biotics. And Sarah would practice, not because Hannah or anyone else wanted her to, in this case quite the opposite was true. Hannah would much rather her daughter completely ignore any abilities that manifested but that wasn't who her daughter was. Sarah would practice because she couldn't leave well enough alone, a trait that she probably got from both of her parents. Not that Hannah would ever admit to that when her husband inevitably decided to bring it up.

Anti-biotic movements were really only one of many problems though, when Hannah thought about it. Another was the cost of the implants, they weren't cheap and insurance didn't cover any surgeries. L3 implants alone were over 100,000 credits and the surgery to implant them was an additional 50,000. Again, insurance wouldn't cover those costs. After the surgery there would need to be training, and training meant either the government, or the Asari. Both of which were roads Hannah didn't want her daughter to be forced onto.

Hannah wanted her daughter to be free to do what she wanted. Free to be who she wanted. If Sarah decided to join the military, wonderful. But Hannah wasn't going to force or bully her into that life, though she also had to admit that there may not be much of a choice.

With a sigh, Hannah realized that any more thought on this would require the aid of her husband, and that led back to breaking it to him. Would it be better to tell him quickly, or tell him slowly and carefully? She knew him well enough that it would probably be better to just rip off the band-aid so to speak, but at the same time, it left crucial context out of the day's other events. When it rains, it pours.

Hannah let out another long sigh as she got in her aircar to head home. No matter which way she told her husband, it wouldn't be easy. Hunter was a proud man, and a man proud of his family. He would likely be pleased with this biotic development, though angry over what it might mean for Sarah. He would understand the need to hide Sarah's abilities, but he would despise humanity for making him do so. Unfortunately, the only place where it was safe to be a biotic was the military right now, so Sarah's secret would have to be kept.

Hannah groaned as she realized that there would be a lot more Star Wars references around the house now. Her husband was a fanatic and the first words out of his mouth would probably be along the line of "Sarah, I trust you to be the best Jedi there ever was. You will be amazing, young padawan, I have foreseen it." or something along those lines. 'Sheesh,' She thought. 'he might even be so happy he would Sarah get her own lightsaber.'

Hannah not-so-privately despised the man who created the first real lightsaber. When her husband had found out about it, he just had to have one and so he cheerfully spent the 6,000 credits necessary to get one. Yes, it was his own money and yes, she had agreed to the purchase. But now? She could swear the man loved that lightsaber more than he loved her. "It's a different kind of love." Is what he would probably say in protest.

Hannah chuckled to herself. Her goofy husband would probably take their daughter outside, dress her in some brown robes and teach her how to use a lightsaber "The proper, Jedi way." Sarah would eat it up too. Old science fiction was how the two bonded. Hannah doubted Sarah loved Star Wars quite as much as her father did, but she was always more than willing to watch it if he asked.

Hannah's smile faded to be replaced by a tired look, as the family's farm came into view on the orange horizon. There would be many changes to come over the next few months. Extra precautions would need to be made. The young Dr. Luke would need to be either tied in to the family somehow, giving him a stake in Sarah's wellbeing, or threatened into silence until Sarah could defend herself against potential enemies. Preferably a combination of both.

Sarah would have to heal and then work on self-defense, preferably with guns, melee, and hand to hand. This would require Sarah to become more fit than she had been. This wasn't to say that Sarah was unhealthy or unfit now. Sarah was very fit for her age, but it was more a question of could she be better than she currently was. As always, and with everything, the answer to that was yes.

Hannah and Hunter would have to find some way to make enough money to pay for their daughter's new needs. School receptionists and administrators didn't get paid well, and while farming paid better, a rather large amount of that pay needed to be reinvested for the next year's harvest.

'Yes,' Hannah thought. 'changes will need to be made.' She parked the aircar and walked inside of her house. Her husband was waiting for her inside. The first words out of her mouth were "How's Sarah doing?"

"She's ok." Hunter Shepard replied "Upstairs, still sleeping. Now, will you tell me why you didn't call me when you found out she had broken her wrist?" He said with a raised eyebrow. "It would be nice to know that, you know, my daughter broke her arm and was on the way to the hospital." Hunter's tone was annoyed and a little betrayed.

Hannah blushed a little and said tiredly. "I'm sorry dear. I, got distracted, and you will understand when I tell you about my day." Hannah stopped talking for a minute and let the day's exhaustion show on her face. It had been a _long_ day.

Hunter nodded and said brusquely. "Ok. You can explain after dinner. I'll take something up to Sarah and you can go ahead and eat…" The words were said with a hard edge to them andHannah felt a little sick inside. The words hurt more than they normally would have because they were right to be hard. She should have called her husband and let him know that their _only_ daughter was on the way to the hospital.

She tried to speak but before she could he stopped her with a sigh. "I'm sorry, for using that tone with you. I'm just worried, I didn't know what to think when you said you were on the way back from the hospital with Sarah, and that she was molested by that boy…" Hunters' voice wavered for a moment before continuing. "I know that during normal circumstances you would have called." the last sentence was said softly, and almost questioning.

Hannah tiredly responded after processing his apology. "No, I'm sorry. I should have called you. I got distracted, but that's not an excuse. You should have been there, and you weren't because I didn't call. I'm sorry. I promise that it won't happen again." She said, resolve tinging her last sentence.

With a nod in acknowledgement, Hunter turned back into the kitchen and began making Sarah's plate for dinner. Hannah knew that Hunter had forgiven her, though he was still likely to be a little sore until he was given the circumstances. Hannah took a deep breath, and walked into the kitchen to get some food.

Dinner was a quiet affair that night. Sarah stayed in her room, trying to sleep off some of the pain in her hands. Hunter and Hannah both stayed quiet simply sitting and eating next to each other on the couch in their living room. After dinner Hannah went and washed the dishes, and Hunter sat down at the table and waited patiently till she was done.

This was something routine for them. When one made dinner the other would wash the dishes, unless Sarah was home, in which case she got to wash the dishes. Evenings were generally spent reading a book, or occasionally watching a movie. Saturdays were game night. Tonight, however that routine would be broken following the dish washing, but it would possibly help fraying tempers to have a piece of that routine.

After the dishes were done, Hannah sat down at the table across from her husband and began recounting her day. She told him about the young Dr. and Sarah's broken fingers, she told him about taking them to the hospital and about Sarah's biotic abilities.

Hunter interrupted. "Sarah is a biotic?" he asked, his face held back in shock. Hannah nodded before Hunter exclaimed. "My daughter is totally a Jedi!" Hannah laughed at the goofy expression on her husband's face and said "I knew that was coming, I just knew it." she stated between chuckles.

Before long though, the chuckles were gone and realization colored his tone as Hunter said. "We are going to need to hide this, aren't we? Now I understand why we didn't have this conversation by comm. Alliance would have been listening to every word." At this he grimaced, his mind connecting dots quickly. "Sarah's going to need training in self-defense, more than she already has." His thoughts mirrored Hannah's previous ones. "Can we trust this Dr. to keep quiet?"

At this Hannah responded. "I, don't know for sure. I made sure he wiped everything from his tool before I left the hospital, and he seems like a decent young man. However, we can't trust that. To be honest I want to use a carrot and stick approach." At this her husband nodded.

"I can see the benefits. Tie him to us by getting him invested in Sarah's interests, at the same time use it to gain information to… _kill_ him if necessary." He said spitting out the word kill, like it was foul.

"That's a last resort only. Fear of us would be a better alternative." She consoled. Hannah knew that Hunter would despise the idea of needing to kill a 15-year-old. She didn't particularly like it either, but she would not see her daughters burnt corpse strapped to a cross, and if it meant that it became necessary to kill another child, she would, with no hesitation.

Hunter must have been thinking along the same line because he said, "It's dangerous to do nothing. My daughter _will not_ go to another Jump-Zero. BAaT may have been shut down last year but the Alliance wouldn't shut it down unless they have something else up their sleeves. And I also won't let her be killed by some idiot who thinks that he's doing humanity a favor by killing an 'alien witch.'"

Hunter sighed before continuing. "Do you remember Daniels?" he asked rhetorically. "Daniels was there as an Alliance guard for that godforsaken program. He killed himself a week ago, couldn't take it anymore, seeing those kids tortured like that. Wrote to his wife that even with it being over they still haunted him."

Hannah knew. Daniel had always been a kind, idealistic soul. She wasn't surprised when she found out he had killed himself. She let her husband finish, and let the silence hang over them like an umbrella of nearing doom. Then she spoke softly, but with bitterness. "I remember. God, we were so, naïve, weren't we? The SA was our sirens song and we came running. How is it only now that we see all that wrong with it? Yes, we booed the BAaT. We didn't like that way biotics were treated, but we never really did anything either. And now the shoe is on the other foot. Now, we can't speak out too loud or we risk people finding out about our daughter. And we also can't let things get worse, for the same reason. God, I feel trapped." Hannah swore loudly, as the true scope of the problems they faced confronted her.

Hunter held her close and squeezed her gently. He held her as she began to cry, the day's frustrations finally taking hold. Hannah felt the tears fall gently across her face. Hunter began to softly whisper reassurances, his breath tickling her ears. They sat there gently holding each other for a while, before Hannah pulled away from her husband.

She recovered a little before asking her husband, "What are we going to do? While I was at the school I looked up the cost of L3 implants on one of the campus computers. It's expensive, more than we have. We also should see about getting Sarah a biotic trainer eventually, how are we going to do it?" She asked, with little hope that he would have a satisfactory answer to her questions.

"One day at a time, one problem at a time." He responded softly. Hannah took the small comforts in that, they were the only thing she could get.

Two weeks later, Sarah and Hannah were back at the hospital for Sarah's checkup. Once they arrived, they received the usual treatment of patients waiting to see a Dr. 'It will be a little while before the Dr. can see you.' Nurses would always say and today was no exception. A little while turned out to be a relatively short 10 minutes before Dr. Luke Towler personally walked through the doors, and waved them back.

Dr. Towler brought them through the labyrinth of hallways and rooms, before leading them to an empty exam room. Once there, he shut and locked the door and then turned to face them. "Ok, down to business, how have your fingers been Sarah, are the pain meds working?" He asked.

Sarah responded. "Yeah, working fine. Just a dull ache really. I haven't been moving any of my fingers much due to the cast though." Luke began waving his omnitool over her hands and asked "Have you been using the cryo-program like I suggested?"

"Yes." Sarah responded before asking, "Why can't you use medigel for this? I meant to ask last time but then the biotics came up and I forgot."

The lone male looked at her for a moment before replying. "Do you know how medigel works?" He asked. Sarah shook her head as Hannah watched on with interest. "Ok. Medigel is made up of four primary components. First is a clotting agent, second is a painkiller, third is an adhesive that only releases over time or due to sound, and lastly, is a bunch of ready to use nutrients that are meant to jumpstart the healing process." Here he paused for a moment before continuing. "This makes medigel great for cuts, punctures, and tears in the skin. Not quite so good for broken bones. The adhesive would interfere with the healing process, preventing new bone from being formed. The painkiller isn't as strong as you would think, because it needs to be aspirin based for biotics as we discussed last time. The clotting agent is really best used for open wounds, because it could cause you to have a stroke in a closed wound situation. The only useful ingredient is the readymade nutrients, but even those would only be so useful, because your body already has them in storage form. It would help within the first few hours but after that your body has brought out most of the nutrients it needs anyway from storage. Make sense?" Luke explained.

"Yeah," Sarah said shuddering. "Short version, medigel only is good with punctures and cuts. Don't use for most blunt force trauma. Right?" "Right." Luke said nodding. "Now don't get me wrong, Medigel is near magical when you are dealing with puncture wounds, abrasions, or cuts, and it works well on burns to an extent. For most blunt force trauma though, unless it's bleeding, medigel Is almost useless or worse, downright dangerous."

The Dr. finished his scans and looked over the results after the short exchange, mumbling to himself a little while he did so. "Ok. So, you need to keep the casts on for a while more, maybe a week." At this Sarah groaned. "The good news, is that I won't have to break any more fingers so they heal correctly. After that week, you can wrap them in tape and bandages for 2 weeks. After, those two weeks are up you can begin stretching your finger muscles and rebuilding that finger strength." With each sentence, Sarah's groans grew louder and louder reaching a crescendo at the last sentence.

"Three weeks?" she moaned out, annoyed at the delay. "Three weeks, longer if necessary." Dr. Luke confirmed before continuing. "And to think, it would never have happened if only you had punched softer targets." He teased gently before his face turned more serious and he looked at Hannah.

"Do you mind if I run a couple more scans?" He asked with a little hesitation. Before following up with, "I just want to make sure that everything is fine. No charge, no records, nothing." he finished hurriedly.

Hannah sighed and nodded. "Yeah, you can. Also, I need to apologize for how I acted last time. I just heard that my daughter was a biotic and…" She hesitated, unsure of where to go from there, "And you got scared for her. Likely more scared than you ever have been in your life?" he finished, understanding tinging his words.

Sarah watched the two carefully as Dr. Luke took the scans. She asked, "Just what has you so scared mom? Why are you so worried about me?" Luke shot Hannah a questioning glance and asked, "You haven't told her?"

Hannah shook her head. Sarah grew more worried at this and asked, "Told me what? Mom? Tell me, whatever it is I can handle it. I'm 16, practically an adult." As she said this she saw the young resident physician shake his head a little.

"Mrs. Shepard?" he asked, clearly looking for permission. Sarah saw her mother nod hesitantly and the Dr. spoke. "Sarah," he began hesitantly. "Your mother has likely told you to keep your biotics a secret, have you?" She nodded, unsure of where this was going.

The fifteen-year-old male sighed before continuing. "Good. Do you know why she asked you to keep them a secret?" At this Sarah was a little confused. She responded, "It's because there is a lot of prejudice against biotics. There are some terrorist groups out there that would like to kill me if they found out, right?"

At this Luke sighed. "Among other reasons yes, Biotics are dangerous. You can move things with your mind. You are also _very_ new. There are no known human biotics over the age of 25. This doesn't make for a good pairing in the human mind. You, as a biotic, are nearly an unknown factor as far as everyone is concerned. Politicians don't like that, it means that you might upset the status quo, and worse voters don't tend to like you. Governments don't like that, they worry that you might find some way to overthrow the government using your power. Regular people are concerned because you might begin seeing yourself as superior to them and they fear what they can't understand." Luke sighed.

"You can break necks and be in a different room if you want to be. You can move at near lightspeed for short amounts of time. You can survive jumps from low atmosphere with no safety equipment. You can cause miniature black holes to form, and then close them up again with little trouble. You break, on a regular basis, what was for the longest time accepted definitions of physical laws it's ridiculous. It's ridiculous, and it's terrifying." Luke stopped to look at Sarah and saw wonder on her face. "I could do all that?" Sarah asked.

Luke decided that he needed to bring a little healthy fear to the situation. "Yes, you could with the right training. _**If**_ the people who want to kill you don't get to you first. It isn't uncommon for biotics, on Earth at least, to be killed in the first few years of life. It's against the law of course, but enough people don't care that police and guards don't normally look very far into it." This had the effect that Luke was looking for.

Dawning horror crossed Sarah's face and disbelief colored her words as she said, "What? That, can't be." Sarah felt true fear for the first time in her life. For the past two weeks, her biotic ability had been something to be treasured, something that made her special. Now she realized that it just made her especially hated. Sarah felt a small piece of her die inside, a small piece of naïveté crushed under the weight of reality.

"I don't tell you this to scare you too much, just to get you to be careful. You don't talk about this with anyone other than me, and your parents and make sure the room is secure. DO NOT talk about it over comms. Don't try practicing your biotics unless your parents are there and they have secured the area. This is for your protection, short term it will work, long term not quite so much." He finished glancing at Hannah, making sure she understood the message as well.

Hannah nodded and Luke turned back and saw the look on Sarah's face. "You thought your biotics were going to be welcomed, didn't you?" He said quietly, his tone trying to be comforting, but realistic.

Sarah nodded, and whispered softly, "Yeah, I did. Is what he said true, Mom? Will people really just kill me for having biotics?"

Hannah nodded and Sarah began to cry softly. Hannah stepped forward, hugged her daughter tightly, and whispered softly into Sarah's ear. "I love you. No one will ever get to you while I 'm breathing. You will be safe, we can train you, make sure that you live a long and happy life." Hannah just held her daughter for a few moments while Dr. Luke stood there awkwardly, unsure of what to do.

Finally, Hannah stood, though Sarah was still softly sobbing. Luke glanced uncomfortably at Hannah and said "Sarah is fine, physically at least. I can't find any trace of the cancers that can show up in new biotics." Luke paused and his face began a back and forth of emotions before he finally asked, "Do you have any ideas, how your daughter became a biotic? If you are just finding out about this now, it wasn't from birth. It would have required some form of Eezo dust exposure, probably within the last year or so. She might have been sick for a few days, symptoms would have been fever, sore throat, migraines, muscle ache, maybe backpain?"

Hannah thought for a moment before responding, "The only thing I can think of was that some of our farm equipment began malfunctioning about a year and a half ago. We took it to the shop that sold it to us and they replaced it at no charge. I know they had an Eezo core to it. but that's all I can think of. I can't remember if Sarah got sick around that time though. If it was it wasn't for very long."

Luke followed up asking, "What kind of malfunctions and farm equipment are we talking about?"

"A plow drone, and a planter drone, both from the same company. The plow drone kept ignoring its internal GPS instructions, and the planter kept flying at too high of an altitude. I'd have to ask my husband though if that had to do with the Eezo core." Hannah said with a little uncertainty entering into her voice.

Luke nodded in response, "Ok. For the moment, we can assume that was the problem. Can I just check to make sure you weren't exposed? It will only take a moment."

Hannah responded, "Yes, of course, but honestly, my husband has more exposure to that equipment than I do."

Luke began the process, running a few scans and saying. "Hmm. I'll need to see him as well, at some point then. I doubt either of you were exposed, or you would show symptoms, but it never hurts to be thorough. In the meantime, I highly suggest you double check your farm equipment. Whatever you do though, DO NOT, file a complaint with the company or the government, even anonymously. It's far too easy to track messages like that, and any mention of Eezo accidents will have Suits all over the colony like a cloud of locusts."

Hannah knew this of course, but chose not to say anything to the doctor. Luke ceased his scans and looked over the results. "You're clean, but I will need to see your husband. I won't charge for this, even checking for it could lead to… uncomfortable questions being asked of both you and me. Perhaps next week?" Luke both stated and asked.

Hannah was pleased with this. It gave her the perfect excuse to invite the young man over. "Actually, why don't you come to our house? Give us a day you could come over for dinner. We could talk, you could look over my husband, and consider it an opportunity for me to apologize as well, for being so… intimidating last time."

Luke paused to consider the offer, and Sarah looked up sharply, the words pulling her out of her funk. This was news to her, and she was surprised her mother was being so apologetic. She knew her mother was almost never like that, unless her mother was planning something.

Sarah quickly thought through the situation. She concluded that her mother was probably trying to protect her by looking for leverage over the young man who had helped them. That, in Sarah's opinion, was a dangerous game to play and she resolved to warn the Dr. as best she could of her mother's intentions.

"I, could do that." Luke said cautiously. "I'm actually free most evenings. Which would work best for you?"

At this Hannah showed some surprise. "Why are you free so often? I thought you as a resident would be quite busy? I had a friend who was a resident Dr. back on Earth, she worked 18 hour shifts on a regular basis and then had to get up the next day and work more."

"My age," Luke replied as though that explained everything.

The confusion showed on Hannah and Sarah's faces, and so he continued. "I am fifteen. Normally, residents are at least 25 and most are actually 28 or older when they get their residency. They are past the point of growing, I am not. 18 hour days would only hurt me, in theory at least, I don't need to sleep as much as you do, sleepless elite and all that. The other, more important, reason is that I fall under a rather large number of child labor laws."

Sarah giggled a little bit at that. The idea that child labor laws of all things were allowing him to come over to their house for dinner amused her.

Luke giggled a little too, his age showing briefly before he continued. "I can really only work 20 hours a week the way those laws are written, that said, I also am an emancipated minor, so I am free to donate as much of my time as I feel comfortable with to a hospital as a volunteer. It just so happens that those hours can also apply to my residency. So, I have a much greater amount of freedom than you would expect from a resident Dr." he finished.

At this Hannah nodded in understanding. It made sense, to a degree at least. She thought for a moment and said "Next Saturday would probably work best. Will that work?"

"Sounds good to me." He replied, his previous cautiousness replaced by a little eagerness.

Since the matter was settled Sarah began her plan to warn the young Dr. asking, "Is there any, um, reading material I could get for biotic knowledge? Things I should know, how to use biotics, that sort of thing?" Luke paused for a moment to think. A sly grin rose to his face as a though crossed his mind. His smile showed nothing but mischief and a sort of dark glee, and Sarah decided quickly that she wanted to avoid being the subject of that look at any cost.

"Actually, I think I can help you there. Normally, you would be screwed. No one really publishes on paper these days, except for collector's edition books and hard copies of reports and such. Normally, this means that you would have to download sympathetic materials from the extranet, and _that_ would get put you on dangerous watch lists. You would show up as a possible biotic sympathizer, or possible biotic, or even possible biotic terrorist. However, I may have a solution." At this he gave a moment of pause for dramatic effect. "Look up the Asari and Turians. Don't look up biotics specifically, however histories, modern culture, and medicine could give you a good idea of what to expect, without getting you placed on the more dangerous watch lists."

Sarah looked a little hesitant before saying, "That's a lot of ground to cover, is there any chance you could give me an idea of where to start?" She was hoping that he would give her resources, and also a link to his omnitool, so that she could warn him about what she suspected her mother was up to. She was all for her mother protecting her, but not by intimidating someone who had done nothing but help them.

"I can send you a few links to some xenopsychology, and medical resources if you want. They will be pretty accurate. I would also recommend you look up groups like the Justicars, and Huntress Squads, and their histories. You might even be able to get military recruitment pamphlets and the like, though those are filled with Asari propaganda. I also recommend looking up Turian military structure specifically Cabals. In general, learn to become interested in military history and biographies." Luke said.

Sarah made a face at that, before softly sighing out an "Ok." On the inside though, she thought. 'Mission accomplished!'

Hannah frowned. She didn't like the idea that her daughter would be spending most of her free time reading about militaries, war, and military tactics. It made her feel like her daughter was being railroaded into a military lifestyle. Unfortunately, it was also good advice. Hannah wanted desperately to articulate her fears to her daughter. It was difficult though, to explain the fine line between wanting to protect Sarah, and wanting to limit her. Ultimately though, these were things that her daughter needed to know, and right now, the only solution was looking into military history.

Luke looked on calmly, letting them absorb the information he gave them. He calmly deleted the records that automatically were made when he performed scans with his omnitool. Then he spoke up, "While I would love to continue to speak with you, I do need to get moving, I do have other patients to see. I will do my best to get you those resources Sarah, expect them sometime in the next few days, just go ahead and give me your omnitool link, actually both of go ahead and give me your links. I can send you both the information when I get it."

Hannah and Sarah both quickly gave him the links and thanked him, before leaving the room and then the hospital. Luke's eyes followed them as they left, and when they were gone, his mind followed the paths of possibilities that their presence left behind.

He like the two women for sure, though Hannah also reminded him somewhat of his father. Hannah Shepard wielded intimidation quite effectively, though today showed him that she also had other tactics she would resort to. The primary difference between Hannah and his father, was that Jack Towler could only serve himself, while Hannah appeared to care about her daughter above everything else.

As he worked through his patients, his mind drifted back to the previous conversations he had with the woman. Luke felt like she was a little, _too_ apologetic, and he couldn't escape the feeling that Hannah had something planned for him and next Saturday. He wondered what it was and his caution born from years of living with his father told him no to go. However, his curiosity was demanding he find out what the woman was planning. He pondered for a few more minutes before putting it out of his mind and focusing on the younger Shepard woman.

Sarah was interesting. Despite his first impression, she really did seem to be a little more tolerant of things outside the norm. She was clearly a bright young woman, though not as bright as he was. Still, there was something about her that seemed, unique. It felt like Sarah carried a feeling of impending success with her, not always, but in flashes. It didn't make sense to him, the girl was barely 16 and was under a lot of new pressure, he had even seen her break down in the exam room today, reeling from the horror of reality. Still, she had quickly recovered. It spoke to hidden determination and Luke couldn't help but believe that Sarah was made up of much sterner stuff than most others were.

"You thinking about a girl Dr.?" A woman's gruff voice called out from behind him. Luke blushed as he turned and faced his boss.

"It's not like that!" he exclaimed as Director Sanchez cackled at him. Her attempts to both embarrass him and break the ice succeeding marvelously.

"The look on your face says otherwise. Who is it? One of your patients? That girl that broke her wrist last week maybe?" He blushed even more deeply, before responding, "It was two weeks ago and it was her fingers actually, and as I said it's not like that!" The last voice was in a raised voice and his already crimson face went even more red as he realized that the nurses and a couple other Drs. were staring at him and chuckling.

Mutters of 'Young love' and chuckles of 'So he _is_ human!' followed him as the Director grabbed his arm and dragged him to her office. "So, it _is_ her then. What's her name? When is your first date?" The directors voice was teasing in nature and relentless in its taunting.

"Again, it isn't like that. I am a professional. She is just a patient." He grit out. His voice which had previously been blustering and defensive changed to a low growl. At this Sanchez's smile faded and she asked him, "Are you trying to convince me or yourself?"

"You. _I'm_ convinced." He responded a little too quickly. Sanchez decided to drop it and change tracks.

"Hm. So why are you thinking about this girl then if it isn't a budding romance? It couldn't be that interesting of a case, it was only a few broken fingers." Sanchez spoke. At this the young Dr. paused, wondering how much he could tell her before deciding to stay on the safe side.

"Her parents" He sighed. "asked me over for dinner and I'm trying to find their angle. It's weird. The timing I mean." Luke said before going silent.

The director opened the door to her office, and gestured for the young man to sit down in a chair as she moved around her desk to sit in her lavish chair. She thought for a few moments. "What do you mean the timing is odd?" She asked, her voice calm.

Luke hesitated for a moment before asking in return, "How much did Professor Davis tell you about my life previous to coming here?"

"A bit." Sanchez responded watching Luke carefully as she continued. "I learned a more with the mandatory background check. Though, because of your age, that was pretty barren as well." In truth, there had been frustratingly little on the young man, and her old colleague had been impossibly vague about his student. This was in part because of Luke's age, however even that didn't explain everything.

Luke paused and debated with himself, trying to decide how much to tell her before he began his story. "My life was… Less than pleasant. My father was the head of Towler Inc. a weapons manufacturer that provides small arms to colony guards and police across alliance space." He was interrupted before he could continue.

"I know. What I don't know is anything about your personality, personal history, or anything to do with you as a person. Everything I know is about your education, very basic personal information like name and birthday, and who your family is." The director stated. Luke swallowed and let the words spill from his lips.

"That," he sighed. "doesn't surprise me. He probably removed anything from public knowledge that referred to me as anything other than his son. My father was obsessed with his own image, with control really. He wanted everything to line up just the way he wanted, to that aim, he used genetic engineering to create me. I was synthesized from a combination of his and my mother's DNA, with all of the potential flaws removed. I turned out even better than he expected. I was intelligent, handsome, and most importantly I was capable of making _him_ look good." At this Luke paused as he got lost in unwanted memories.

The Director looked on, carefully evaluating each word. The picture that was being painted wasn't pleasant by any means, but she was determined to listen and find out more about her youngest employee.

After a moments pause Luke continued. "He could be, abusive, in his quest for perfection. I was forced to study, to be the best. I graduated high school at 10. That can't happen in a healthy household. As soon as I was able, my father began hiring tutors, I worked on school for 16 hours a day sometimes. My only breaks were when it was time to eat, sleep or exercise. The only exceptions to this, and the only time I interacted with others was at the parties he went to, there I was shown off to make him look good. I remember the first time I went. Apparently, I didn't make him look good enough, He broke my arm when we got home."

Luke paused as he remembered that night. How his father had been enraged that he hadn't been able to remember the name of Henry Lawson after only one time meeting the man. He remembered the pain in his arm as his father nearly splintered the bone by repeatedly slamming the door on it. How his father simply slipped a credit chip to the Dr. who asked questions and said 'My son had a nasty fall down the stairs after he tried to stay awake for 24 hours. You know how 6 year old's are.' He remembered how his pain medication was "appropriated" by his mother when she wanted to get high.

"Luke?" Director Sanchez' voice broke through the memories and he saw that she had a worried look on her face. He realized that he had been quiet for almost two minutes.

He let out a sigh and said, "It was, unpleasant. I was 6 when that happened. It never happened again, for that reason at least. I worked hard, and so was kept physically healthy apart from occasional bruising and a few broken bones. He wanted me to be pliable, not broken. I think that he felt like he had put too much effort into me to restart from the beginning." Tears began to well up in his eyes as he opened up to his boss. He wiped them away carefully before continuing.

The director carefully ignored the moment of weakness, instead focusing on the boy's likely mental health. Judging from the story it probably wasn't very good. Abandonment issues were likely, and it would be fairly easy for someone to gain Luke's loyalty if they gave him a purpose and treated him well. She refocused as Luke began to speak again.

"My food was carefully regimented into exactly what I needed for my daily requirements. I was forced to exercise, for just the optimal amount of time for my age. When I turned 10, I was sent to Harvard. College gave me my first taste of real freedom. It was the first time I had met people who weren't closely associated with my father. Many of my father's more… constrictive, policies were laxed for the sake of convenience. I got to choose what classes I took to an extent. He got final say of course, but was willing to allow me to decide my general degree path so long as it could make him look good."

Director Sanchez looked on sadly as the young man sitting in front of her chuckled bitterly. "Did you know that it's possible to get two 4 year degrees in a year? It's possible. UCLEP out of the first three years' worth and then you only have the major specific classes to take. I chose biology, but of course that wasn't enough for good old Dad. He chose business, and forced me to get both." Luke's chuckles ended, and his voice just became hollow as he finished. "After I graduated with honors, I went to med school. At the same time, I also got enrolled in business college, as if Med school wasn't hard enough already. Fortunately, Dad understood, I only had to complete my M.B.A by the time I graduated Med school, the Ph.D. in business, could wait until 6 months after I graduated." Luke's voice was dead, though the sarcasm was clearly present in his word choice.

"And then your father was killed in the process of murdering your mother." Sanchez finished horror tinging her tone. Luke nodded tiredly. "Yes." He hissed out. "I was on my way home from setting up my residency at John Hopkins when I got the call. Some burglar broke into the house, saw Father standing over my dead mother, and killed him. Never got caught either. I suspect that a couple of unruly business partners found out that he was skimming money of the top and killed him for it. Too bad, I was kind of hoping to do that myself."

The director looked on at the hurting young man before her. She knew she should remove him from his position at the hospital, or at least require him to see a psychiatrist, but she knew that would never happen. His money would let him find some other place to work, some other place would have him as a resident, and he would be out of her reach, and never get the help he clearly needed.

Sanchez looked at the young man and recalled why she had brought all this up in the first place. "So your personal history makes you wonder if these people who are asking you over, just want to use you? If they are interested in you as a person, or if they found out who you are and are trying to use you?" The theory made sense.

Luke swallowed. He had forgotten that question. All he was really trying to do was deflect suspicion when he had answered originally. He hadn't intended to reveal so much of his past. He knew or at least suspected why the Shepards wanted him over. They wanted to ensure his silence. He decided to let the director believe her theory was correct rather than correct her.

"Yes," he whispered. "That, and I am lonely. I don't, I mean." He paused and took a deep breath before continuing. "The only people I saw outside of my father's parties for the first 10 years of my life were him, my mother, and my tutors. That was it. Now even they are gone, and I live alone. My father twisted me in some ways. His was the only form of approval I got. Now that is gone, the only replacement I have is the jealousy of others. I both loved and hated my father, and now that he is dead, I don't know what to do but what he wanted me to." He paused and realized he was rambling a bit. "I apologize, I'm probably not making much sense. I feel alone, and I worry that I'll try to gain the approval of others who may not have my interests at heart, in order to feel less alone."

He hadn't intended to share so much, he hadn't even realized how much truth there was in his statements. His words rang true to his ears, and it left him feeling even more hollow inside. At the same time, there was a sense of relief that came with it. It felt good to air his feelings, even if it was to a person who he barely knew.

"And so, you wonder, what they want. You wonder why they would want to spend time with you. Why now, after almost year of being alone, someone would approach you and maybe give you a chance to not be lonely." Sanchez stated softly understanding coloring her tone.

Luke nodded. He realized he was being more vulnerable than he should be, that he was potentially falling into the same trap that he was saying he was trying to avoid, but for the moment, he couldn't care less. He needed this. He needed for someone to know. He needed to have someone he could talk to, someone he could confide in. The Director was just as good as anyone else, maybe even better. She had a reputation for protecting her employees like a mother lion.

Perhaps more importantly, the director had a calming presence on him, he trusted her. He couldn't say why. Maybe it was because she never treated him as less or more than other people, maybe it was because she was like him, someone who was whispered about behind their back. All he knew was that he trusted her.

"Do you want my advice?" Dr. Sanchez asked. Luke nodded quickly. "Your fears aren't unjustified. You have been abused and mistreated all your life. Despite that, I think you should go. You need to be around people your own age, and this may be one of the few times that you can do that. That said, be careful. Let me know when you get there, and when you leave."

With those words the director leaned back in her chair and examined the boy before her. He seemed more tragic now than when she had brought him into the office. She resolved to check in on him regularly, now that she had an idea of his mental state. He was fragile at the moment; his life had left him damaged. It could be repaired, slowly and carefully, but it would take time, probably years, and he would likely spend the rest of his life with mental and emotional scars.

"If you ever need to talk, come see me. I can't guarantee that I'll be able to talk immediately, but I will make time for it. _Do not_ , make me come looking for you. Right now, the only reason I'm still letting you work here is because I think that you need it. I'm tempted to make you see a psychiatrist regularly, but I think that you would be more likely to leave this hospital and pursue your residency elsewhere than open up to someone else again." She paused to gather her thoughts a little more before continuing.

"If you make me come looking for you, I will make you see a psychiatrist. You _will not_ endanger the people of this hospital because of your mental state." She paused again, hoping she wasn't pushing too hard before continuing. "One more thing, before you leave. Take some time off just work here when you have to. Your volunteer hours spend them, for a few weeks at least, finding something that you like doing. Gaming, working out, reading, find something that lets you relax. Working as much as you do doesn't fill the void. Sometimes it just makes you feel more hollow." She finished, hoping that the boy would do as she told him.

Luke paused, watching her closely before slowly nodding. "I can do that, maybe not all of my volunteer hours, but some of them." He recognized the wisdom in her words. He didn't like it, he was used to being busy, however if the Director wanted him to, he would.

"Good. You can start now." Dr. Sanchez commanded sternly. Luke looked up sharply a protest on his lips. "No buts. You've been distracted all morning. Go home and work it out. I'll make sure your scheduled to do less starting next week. For today though go home and work out your… Funk" She almost spat the word out like it was revolting, her face twisting into interesting shapes as she did so. "At the moment, you are more likely to kill a patient than save him." She added.

"Yes Dr. Sanchez." He replied softly, his voice cracking a little with puberty. He turned to leave and the director called out one last thing to him. "Luke, this isn't a punishment, it's an intervention. I need you at top form, in order to do that we have to make sure that you are mentally healthy. You said it yourself, your father twisted you. This is only one thing that you need, in order to be a little more mentally healthy."

"I, understand Director." Luke replied, before turning and walking out the door. He understood, but he wasn't pleased. His thoughts returned to his father. When Jack Towler had died, he had left his son with no purpose. Luke was left adrift, alone and abandoned to his fate, with little to drive him. Truth be told Luke had to admit to himself that had had just been existing. Now, maybe it was time to find a new purpose, a new reason to live.

 **Thats all for now folks. Again, please Review and give me feedback. Let me know what you wold like to see from the story and give me the constructive criticism I desperately need. PM me if you would like to Beta this story.**

 **Next time I think will cover the dinner and may be a bit more. We will see. Please note that Story chapters will be fairly irregular since college has started. Thanks. Bye.**


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